GHOSTS of PILGRIMS PAST

"Ghosts of Pilgrims Past" was a spontaneous Thanksgiving art project, completely conceived and enacted by children at the family gathering. Troy's Work Table assigned the Pilgrims after the fact, but the art project, its curation, and the accompanying performance piece were all initiated by the wee ones.

Clockwise from upper left:

(1) John Carver.

(2) William Bradford.

(3) William Burton, the only Pilgrim to die on the Mayflower's voyage from England to the New World, and therefore buried at sea. The text reads: "I am going to haunt you...forever! BOO!"

(4) Elizabeth Hopkins.

CUTTING IN: HERMAN MELVILLE

The problem: I realize that I don't really know enough about Herman Melville as I begin this Moby-Dick reading project on which I have embarked.

The solution: Obtain three Melville biographies from three different independent bookstores.

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I knew which biographies of Melville that I hoped to find.

The first is considered to be "definitive." It is a two volume biography—the first volume covering the years 1819 to 1851, the second covering 1851 to 1891—from birth to death, with the break coming at the pivotal point of the publication of Moby-Dick. The author, Hershel Parker, is one of the leading Melville academics.

The second is a small book consisting of a mere 150 or so pages, compared to the 2000 pages of Parker's two volumes. It is a brief look at Melville's life by literary critic and novelist Elizabeth Hardwick. I have read passages of it from a copy I checked out from the library and I find it irritating. Hardwick seems flip with information and not especially concerned about trying to define Melville's life or his work.

Parker's two mammoth volumes and Hardwick's slim tome appear polar opposites. That is why I need all three books.

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I stumbled upon Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 1, 1819-1851) by happenstance. I was digging through the shelves of King's Books (Tacoma, Washington) and an ex-library copy (Seattle Public Library) of it stared back at me. Other than having a few stickers and markings upon the dust jacket, it was in good condition.

I began poking and prodding through its pages as soon as I got home. I was intrigued by the wealth of information that Hershel Parker had collected and presented on Melville, his life, and his various writings. It was at that moment that I knew that I needed to find the second volume, as well as the Hardwick biography as a counterpoint.

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A quick search of the website of Powell's City of Books (Portland, Oregon) turned up a hardcover edition of Elizabeth Hardwick's Herman Melville. I ordered it and it was in my mailbox within a matter of days (distinctive Powell's packaging pictured above).

I find myself more kind to this book now that I am halfway through it. Hardwick presents her version of Melville. This book is less academic, less scholarly, and less wordy than other biographies, but that is the point. Hardwick has made his life read like a novel. Details are discarded when necessary to move "the plot" along. What I once thought flip and short turns out to be a percussive rhythm.

I am glad that I gave this book another chance.

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Another internet search, this time on Biblio.com, turned up another ex-library copy of volume two of Hershel Parker's Melville biography. Eight days after being ordered, Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 2, 1851-1891) arrived this afternoon in my mailbox. The good folks at Icapsa Used Books (Grand Rapids, Michigan) helped me to complete my Herman Melville biography "wish list."

My task at hand is to begin to cull through it for facts and nuggets of information, much as I have done with my other two Melville biographies.

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I want to thank three independent booksellers for their excellent customer service and their part in helping to make the "Cutting In" project a reality. Support an independent bookstore today!

WHITE RIVER DISC GOLF COURSE

Disc golf in the rain means fewer people on the course. Therefore, I headed off to White River DGC on a wet Sunday afternoon (by myself!) to play a round.

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Hole 1 - 3
Hole 2 - 4
Hole 3 - 3
Hole 4 - 3
Hole 5 - 4
Hole 6 - 4
Hole 7 - 4
Hole 8 - 4
Hole 9 - 3
Front nine - 32 (+5)

Hole 10 - 3
Hole 11 - 4
Hole 12 - 4
Hole 13 - 3
Hole 14 - 4
Hole 15 - 3
Hole 16 - 5
Hole 17 - 3
Hole 18 - 4
Back nine - 33 (+6)

Total - 65 (+11)

CUTTING IN: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

As my friend and fellow writer Dave reminds me, today is the 158th anniversary of the publication of Moby-Dick; or, the Whale by Herman Melville in America. It was preceded by its British "counterpart" The Whale; or, Moby-Dick by almost a month.

Moby-Dick; or, the Whale was first published on November 14, 1851 by Harper & Brothers of New York.

The Whale; or, Moby-Dick was first published on October 18, 1851 by Richard Bentley of London.

The American edition was typeset and ready to be published prior to the British edition, even though the latter ended up being published first. The British edition is a different book than the American edition, however, and not only due to the change of title. Melville made changes and corrections to his manuscript, which had been typeset in America and provided the proof pages for the British edition. Bentley also made changes, removing or changing passages that he felt would upset his Victorian reading audience, especially those of sexual, religious, or political content.

So, here's a hearty "Happy Birthday" to the American version of Melville's masterpiece!

"BOOK TOUR"

Today was a bookish day for Troy's Work Table. It began with a trip to the Puyallup Public Library, where the child attended storytime, checked out books, and placed a puzzle together.


It was soon followed by visits to King's Books, University of Washington Bookstore, and Meta Books—all of Tacoma. At King's Books, TWT just happened upon an ex-library copy of Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 1: 1819–1851 by eminent Melville scholar Hershel Parker. Let's just say that I was extremely happy, especially finding a book that will help establish some of the historical and social context of my Moby-Dick reading project.


Miko, one of the two bookstore cats at King's Books, welcomed us as we arrived and bid us farewell when we left. His friend Atticus also made sure that proper hospitality (and opportunities for vigorous petting) were extended. Then it was off to home to read some in Moby-Dick and the newly acquired biography.

THE MAGIC CROCK-POT

I arrived home after work to an empty house. I could smell something cooking, but no one was around. The wife and the child were away at a cooking class.

I walked into the kitchen and saw a loaf of bread sitting on the cutting board. A handwritten note upon it read "Please bake me!" Being (1) good at following directions and (2) hungry, I preheated the oven and placed the bread therein.


Glancing over at the opposite counter, I spied the origin of the wonderful smell. It was a Crock-Pot® filled with Guinness Beef Stew. I opened the lid and stirred the contents of the pot around.

When the bread was done, I ladled up a bowl of potatoes, carrots, eggplant, beef, and broth and sat down to eat. I was just finishing my stew, my hunk of bread, and my Alaskan Winter Ale when the child and the wife returned home. They filled up their own bowls and we spent ten minutes together before I was off to my writing group, to share some new pieces and dream about the Magic Crock-Pot® at home.

AUTUMN

Early November sunset in Edgewood, Washington.

Autumn. The light is dimmer, the colors are saturated, weighted. Everything is curling in upon itself—leaves on the ends of twigs, tails on the ends of squirrels, wisps of vapor on the ends of clouds, heavy with November rains. Gravity and dark and cold are pressing in.

CUTTING IN: BEGINNINGS

I have decided to take a year and read Moby-Dick closely and in great detail, to really reflect upon what appears on the page, and to see what intrigues and challenges me. My primary goal is to read it from cover to cover, although I am also going to skip about as I see fit. Some chapters will be read again and again. Some chapters will be engaged by bringing them to life.

I imagine eating clam chowder and relating my experience to that of Ishmael and Queequeg eating their clam and cod chowders at the Try Pots in Chapter 15, "Chowder." I hope to spend some of the season of Christmas at the ocean, much as Ishmael and his shipmates spend their "short, cold Christmas" "broad upon the wintry ocean" in Chapter 22, "Merry Christmas."

I hope to make hardtack at home. I hope to visit the Working Waterfront Maritime Museum in Tacoma. I hope to visit the Karpeles Manuscript Museum (also in Tacoma). I hope to visit a tall ship, and perhaps ride on one. I hope to be able to taste whale blubber.

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My interest in reading Moby-Dick once again was piqued by the Dalkey Archive's Summer 2009/Vol. XXIX issue of The Review of Contemporary Fiction. This special fiction issue is dedicated to Herman Melville's ; or The Whale, an extract edition of Moby-Dick. It is nearly 400 pages of text that was left out of the Moby-Dick in Half the Time abridged version. It is weirdly enticing to read every paragraph, word, and punctuation mark left out of Moby-Dick during its abridgment.

This play with the text led me to realize that there are three full versions of Moby-Dick—an American edition, first published in 1851 by Harper & Brothers in New York; a British edition, first published in 1851 by Richard Bentley in London, which differs due to revisions of both Melville and Bentley; and the Northwestern-Newberry scholarly edition, first published in 1988, which "created" a new text by trying to determine what would have been the actual corrections and revisions that Melville himself would have made, but ultimately resulted in a new version of the book formed by using bits and pieces from both the American and British versions.

Needless to say, I now have at least four versions of Moby-Dick floating about the home library.

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The name of this year-long reading project, "Cutting In," comes from the chapter of the same name (Chapter 67). This brief chapter describes the crew of the Pequod cutting in to the carcass of a recently captured whale and dissecting it into its component parts. It seemed an apt metaphor for what I find myself doing to the text as I read and reflect and reread. Therefore, "Cutting In" it is.

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I hope you will embark on this journey with me as I engage this great and sprawling mess of a novel in its various incarnations.

TROY'S TAP HANDLE

"The next logical step, it appears to me, is to begin a blog specifically for my beer posts. That way, my interest in craft beer can be better defined and better cared for in a place dedicated to it alone."

Read the first post on Troy's Tap Handle HERE.

WHITE RIVER DISC GOLF COURSE

After being sick for two weeks with a major head cold—head pressure, congestion, coughing, drainage, body aches, fatigue, et cetera—it was nice to be able to head back outside and hit the disc golf course. It meant that I was doing such the day after a good strong windstorm had removed many leaves from the trees on the course. It meant playing in some strong wind, and having to use my heavier discs. It meant having to adapt my game due to those heavier discs and that brisk wind. It also meant having to search for discs as they buried themselves into piles of leaves or simply blended into the background.


The fairway of hole #1 was littered with yellow and brown maple leaves. One would think that it would be fairly easy to locate a white disc that landed upon them, but such was not the case.


Hole #3 proved to be a challenge, as I hit a tree on the first shot and played at the edges of the fairway for the rest of the hole. Once again, you would think that a bright red disc would be fairly easy to find, but when only a portion of the disc is visible it is somewhat of a challenge.


Hole #6 is only available during the winter layout of the course. It involves fewer trees than summer layout #6, yet I find it more challenging due to the cedar trees. Not only am I allergic to them, but when their branches are wet they may as well be made out of cement. In other words, they stop discs immediately.



Clockwise from upper left: Mirus in a bed of maple leaves; Sinus in a bed of cottonwood leaves; Stingray in a bed of cottonwood leaves; and Gumbputt in a bed of mixed leaves—maple, cottonwood, and alder.


Hole #9 is a fun hole in both winter and summer (#7 in summer layout). Fortunately, I curled my disc around and through trees to avoid most of the leaves on the ground.


Hole #11 is one of my favorite holes. I played it well today. My initial drive curved to the left and set me up within decent putting range. I almost made the basket on my second shot, hitting the pole and glancing off.


Hole #16 was a challenge due to the leaves remaining on the trees. I couldn't get my first two shots to break the screen of trees near the old riverbed. Once I did, I was in good shape.


Buzzz attempts to hide.


As does Avenger SS (Super Straight).

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Hole 1 - 3
Hole 2 - 5
Hole 3 - 4
Hole 4 - 6
Hole 5 - 3
Hole 6 - 4
Hole 7 - 4
Hole 8 - 3
Hole 9 - 3
Front nine - 35 (+8)

Hole 10 - 3
Hole 11 - 3
Hole 12 - 4
Hole 13 - 3
Hole 14 - 3
Hole 15 - 3
Hole 16 - 5
Hole 17 - 4
Hole 18 - 3
Back nine - 31 (+4)

Total - 66 (+12)

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My best shot of the day was an eighty-foot putt that curved around a tree to the right of the basket and hit nothing but chains and dropped right in. It was absolutely awesome. (It also made up for my horrible six throws on hole number four.)